World War Z

I have to say, I’m fascinated by the response to the Israeli sequences in World War Z. The anti-Israel set is really freaking out about the implications of those scenes while the pro-Israel set is cautiously embracing the picture. (Some spoilers below.)

As I noted in my review, the film is, on the whole, something of a mess. For the most part it never really lives up to its name—we globe hop, but the sequences set in South Korea and Wales could just as easily have been set anywhere else given the lack of local color. It almost never feels like a “world war.”

The one exception is the 20 or 30 minutes we spend in Israel. It actually feels like we’re in the Middle East (though the film wasn’t shot in Israel) and the shots of the endless zombie hordes that pour into the country—toppling buses and mounting walls through sheer mass—are the only sequences that feel particularly unique.

But maybe I just liked this sequence because I’m a perfidious Zionist.

There’s a message here, but what is it?

So I saw World War Z, the new Brad Pitt movie about a worldwide zombie outbreak, and here’s the surprising thing: I can’t decide whether it’s the most anti-Semitic movie ever made, or the most Zionist movie ever made.